edgeryders: a novel methodology for social research
DESCRIPTION
From a Council of Europe project, a new way to research social issues, giving rise to a hybrid of consultancy and consultation.TRANSCRIPT
Meet the citizen expert: societal change seen from the trenches
Alberto Cottica
Citizens as experts
“The future is already here.It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
William Gibson
MASSIVELY COLLABORATIVESELF-SELECTEDA THINK TANKDISTRIBUTEDEXPERIENCE BASED
you you
Act 1: seed
Learning
Where did you learn your key
skills?
Campaigns
Missions
Missionreports
Take an online lecture. Does it
work?[...]
Act 2: grow
1,000 Twitter users
9,000 tweets
Citizens as a communication team: Edgeryders on Twitter, Mar-Jun 2012
1200 participants
500 mission reports
4000 comments
Act 3: harvest
1,700 pages
of high quality ethnographic data
The EDGERYDERS guide to the future I
THE EDGERYDERS GUIDE TO THE FUTURE
A HANDBOOK FOR POLICYMAKERS &
DESIGNERS OF POLICY-ORIENTED
ONLINE COMMUNITIES
The Edgeryders networkin December 2012Density 0.028Average weighted degree 10.87Average distance 2.3
The Edgeryders networkwith moderators removedDensity 0.013Average weighted degree 3.7Average distance 3.3
The Edgeryders networkwith moderators removedModularity 0.5Subcommunities are clearly visible
What are subcommunities talking about?Blue edge = more specialization on one or few topics, red edge = no specialization, all topics equally discussed
Topic treeHow “broad” and “deep” are discussions?
Topic tree (detail)A nice fractal pattern between topics, subtopics, posts and comments
So, what have we built?
Inclusive: a space for individual citizens to be heard
Diverse: be everyone to engage with everyone!
Open: anyone can join without permission
Effective: highly relevant results
truthfulself-correctingConsultancy + consultationsocial businessThe future
THANK YOU
http://edgeryders.eu
Photo credits: the yes man, Medhin Paolos, Photographic Poetry, h.koppdelaney,